NBCSN Cancellation: Next Domino in Streaming vs. Cable Falls
Last week, NBC Universal announced NBC Sports Network would be shut down by the end of this year. This is a significant development in the sports media landscape, and frankly, not a surprising one. With the number of cord-cutters continuing to rise, networks have been racing to get their OTTs off the ground and fill them with attractive content. ESPN+ began to feature UFC fights just over a year ago. They gradually filled their cards with more of the known fighters in the sport, culminating with Dustin Poirier's knockout of Conner McGregor last Saturday (the payoff for ESPN was 1.2 million PPV buys). This past academic year has featured Big 12 football and basketball on the OTT, and part of ESPN's record-setting broadcast rights deal with the SEC will feature the some of the conference's coveted football games on the platform (you might have to wait a few years before Alabama-LSU is streaming though!). NBC Universal will look to follow that lead, as the most popular programming of NBCSN - the NHL and English Premier League - will move to their streaming service, Peacock.
Again, this should not be a surprise, as younger generations are drastically shifting their live sports viewing habits to streaming. The big question is what we can expect moving forward. here are a few thoughts:
- Networks will continue to shift content to their streaming services. Disney (ABC/ESPN) and NBC Universal have shown their hand. What will ViacomCBS and Fox do? The NBC Universal move could be a signal - if I had to guess, CBS Sports Network would be the next to go, with programming such as College Basketball and PBR moving to CBS All Access, which has been pretty quiet on the sports front.
- Streaming Services and OTTs will get more competitive in the broadcast rights bids. Amazon has already dipped their toe in the water with the NFL, and there is speculation they will eventually be the sole destination for Thursday Night Football when the current round of rights negotiations are over. DAZN and FloSports have been touting niche content like boxing and cycling respectively, with more deals in the works. Then there's the sleeping giant in the room: Netflix. Recently they've shown the large audiences they can get with sports-related content such as The Last Dance, Cobra Kai, and the Queen's Gambit. I think it's a matter of if, not when, they throw their hat in the live sports ring.
- Continued rise in short-form content and highlights. Attention spans are dropping, and full game broadcasts are inherently becoming background noise in households. At the same time, interest in game highlights, candid videos from athletes, and the END of a live game are all on the rise. Speaking from personal experience, working full time, being in grad school, and raising a child all realistically limit my opportunities to sit down and watch a 3-hour game start to finish. However, my current provider, YouTubeTV, has a brilliant alternative. Not only are all my favorite teams set to record, but if I tune in after the game has started, I have the option to "catch up through key plays." It literally identifies and records the highlights of all the big moments of the game. So while I might only be watching the end of the game live, I basically have an abbreviated context of how the teams got there. I love it! If you have a sports app on your phone, you likely have it set to alert you when your team is about to play or in the middle of a close game. Look for the technology for that alert to eventually allow you a live look-in at that key moment.
I'm going to miss the niche programming of NBCSN, but I am looking forward to the new and exciting ways to consumer sports!